Furniture Making

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  • How to Cross Cut with a Router

    So you’re working on a project where you need to cut a big wide slab, perhaps a table or a bench, and you say to yourself “how can I cut this cleanly in such a way that I don’t have to spend the rest of my life sanding the end grain smooth?”. You are correct…

  • Pocket Hole Joinery: Beyond Face Frames

    Leg to rail construction is a very common part of building furniture. There are lots of ways the joints can be created, but few are as quick and easy as pocket holes. And, there’s plenty of strength in a pocket hole joint. It’s common for a leg to rail joint to have a reveal, an…

  • Adding a Slot to Install Table Top Fasteners

    When it comes time to install the top on a table, it is important to come up with an approach that allows the table top to expand and contract freely with seasonal changes in humidity. If we don’t accommodate this movement, bad things are bound to happen. The table top could crack, or the movement…

  • Making a Continuous Grain Drawer Front

    Have you ever seen a table with a drawer featured as part of the apron, and the grain of the apron flows through the drawer face as if it were cut directly out of the apron without disturbing the surrounding wood? Could it be a magic trick, or are some craftsmen just that superior? Well…

  • Filling Knots with Epoxy

    Some of the most amazing pieces of wood are the ones that have “defects.” Defects could be spalting (mold), small checks, bark inclusions or, in this case, a huge hole. Sure, we could cut around those things and eliminate them, but I’m a huge fan of including this character in the final piece. I think…

  • Jointing with a Router

    Perhaps you are just getting started in woodworking and you don’t have a jointer in your shop. Or, if you are fortunate enough to have a jointer, there are situations where the boards that you want to joint exceed the capacity of your jointer. Sure, if you have money and space you can always use…

  • Allowing for Wood Expansion on Solid Wood Tops

    Wood moves; there’s nothing you can do about it. Even after the tree is down, the wood has been dried, you’ve got it in your shop, and you apply finish, wood is gonna move. It’s a living, breathing thing. If you don’t allow for wood expansion, you’re going to have problems in the future. Problems…

  • Notching For Legs with a Circular Saw

    Often a furniture project calls for cutting a notch out of a panel to wrap around another item for a custom fitted appearance. Case in point: a tabletop that is notched around the legs to showcase the top of the legs for a point of interest. It can be difficult to establish these short cut…

  • Tightening Loose Tenons

    If you’ve got a shop, it’s a certainty that people are going to ask you to do furniture repairs. It comes with the territory. The next time a piece comes into your shop that has round tenons, and they’re loose tenons, you’re going to want to try this repair. It provides an easy way to…

  • Mitered Edge Banding Made Easy

    Applying hardwood edge banding is a great way to finish the edges on a veneered piece. However, it can be difficult to get nice miter joints because the length of the edge banding pieces must be perfect and every angle must also be perfect. Here is a very easy way to get absolutely perfect miters.…

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